As Ozzy Osbourne prepares to say his final goodbye to the stage, the Prince of Darkness is looking back — not at the chaos, the controversy, or even the decades of thunderous success — but at the moment that started it all.
Meeting Paul McCartney.
Ozzy recently admitted that coming face-to-face with The Beatles legend “was like seeing God.” And coming from a man who redefined heavy metal, shocked the world, and built one of the most iconic careers in rock history, that confession carries weight.
For Ozzy, The Beatles weren’t just a band on the radio. They were an awakening.
Growing up in working-class Birmingham, surrounded by hardship and uncertainty, young John Michael Osbourne didn’t see many paths forward. The world felt small. Dreams felt distant. Then he heard The Beatles.
Everything changed.
He has often said that hearing “She Loves You” for the first time flipped a switch inside him. It wasn’t just the melody — it was the possibility. Four lads from England had taken over the world. They looked like him. They came from streets not so different from his own. Suddenly, the impossible didn’t feel impossible anymore.
That spark would eventually ignite Black Sabbath.
It’s almost poetic: the boy inspired by The Beatles would go on to create an entirely new sound — darker, heavier, louder — shaping generations of rock and metal musicians. Ozzy became a legend in his own right, a cultural force who turned chaos into art and defied the odds time and time again.
And yet, even legends have idols.
When Ozzy finally met Paul McCartney, all the bravado faded. The wild persona. The outrageous stories. The larger-than-life presence. In that moment, he was just a fan — the same wide-eyed kid from Birmingham who once dared to dream because of a song on the radio.
“It was like seeing God,” he said, capturing the awe of meeting someone who unknowingly gave him his life’s direction.
As he now reflects on his journey and prepares for his final bow, there’s something beautifully human about that memory. Beneath the bat-biting headlines and the Prince of Darkness mystique is a man who simply loved music — and believed in it because someone else showed him it was possible.
Ozzy Osbourne changed rock history.
But before that, Paul McCartney changed Ozzy.